The concept of covers of resilient material or cushions for consumer articles such as gas valves, door knobs and the like in order to protect the users hand from heat or cold or make it easier for a disabled person to open and close a door are known in the art. For example, coverings extending over a smooth surfaced handle or smooth surface door knob are used for the purpose of making it easier for a disabled person to grip the handle, in other cases the covering is used for thermally isolating the user's hand from the handle in order to prevent the user from burning his or her hand.
In the irrigation field a number of different components are assembled at the work site. The field assembly of components generally involves “one shot applications” which usually  include hand attachment of irrigation components, such as pipe taps, to irrigation pipes. One type of pipe tap comprises a drainage valve that has male threads that mate with a threaded connection on an irrigation pipe and another pipe tap comprises a self tapping pipe tap that mounts in a saddle with a barrel on the tap that frictional engages an irrigation pipe to form a leakproof connection between the pipe tap and the irrigation line. Since these units usually require substantial torque to attach the valve generally ears or projections are molded into the integral handle on the taps.
In general, the pipe taps have a rigid housing and are made from hard plastic materials. The pipe taps are secured to a pipe by rotation of an integral handle on the pipe tap with respect to the pipe. For example, one can field attach a pipe tap such as a threaded drainage valve to an irrigation line through a set of mating threads that are located on the drainage valve and on the irrigation line. In other cases, a pipe tap having a pipe tap handle is used in conjunction with a pipe saddle to allow a user to field attach a pipe tap to an irrigation line without the need for tools. In general, the field assembly with “one shot” components such as pipe taps requires that the pipe taps need to be firmly connected to the irrigation system to prevent leakage. This field attachment process usually requires the user to apply a substantial hand torque to the pipe tap to obtain the proper leak proof connection therebetween. For this reason the handle or hand gripping region on pipe taps usually includes ears on the rigid rim or recess in the rigid rim.
One such pipe tap is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,579 and comprises a hand attachable drain valve made from a rigid material. The rigid hand gripping region including rigid ears and rigid serrated friction ridges located between the ears to enhance the ability of the user to firmly grasp and rotate the drain valve as it is field attached to an irrigation system. The finger gripping regions allow a user to easily begin the threading process. Since the tap should be securely attached to the irrigation system the protruding ears provide a handle so  the user can increase his or her hand contact on the ears and consequently increase the rotational torque through either formation of a mechanical type interlock produced by the circumferential engagement of the ears or protrusions with the user's fingers or through frictional engagement of the palm of the user's hand with the rigid ears. These type of rigid hand shaped handles permit a user to quickly and tightly secure an irrigation component such as a drainage valve to an irrigation system to form a leakproof connection in the field attachment process.
Oftentimes the user must attach a number of irrigation components or taps to an irrigation system as is it is being built. The repeated harsh engagement between the users hand and the irrigation component, can effect the tightening of the tap. It is important to properly secure the irrigation valve to produce leakproof connections through “on site” hand tightening even though attachment of multiple irrigation components can case a user to develop a sore hand from gripping and securing multiple rigid taps.
The present invention comprises an improvement to the irrigation components that allows one to retain the ability to generate a high hand torque while at the same time reducing the harsh hand engagement by providing a soft bump on the peripheral surface or on at least a portion of the peripheral surface that form pressure points. The soft bumps on the hand gripping region of the peripheral surface enables one to reduce the effect of the continued harshness of the engagement with the user's hand as multiple irrigation components are attached to an irrigation system. The soft bumps also reduces hand fatigue that occurs when a number of components have to be rotatably connected through hand tightening in the field. In the addition, the soft bumps can be made from materials that not only conform to the users hand but provide an increased frictional resistance or a non-slip surface between the user's hand and the irrigation component and thus aid in the securement of the tap. The  present invention allows one to reduce the harshness of hand engagement even though there may only be partial covering of the hand gripping region of the irrigation tool.